Bill Maher has always been outspoken but when he decided to speak out about his feelings concerning the Catholic Church, many people were not pleased. Maher made comments in reference to the latest child abuse scandels connected with the church:

Maher said: “If you have a few hundred followers and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you ‘pope.’ “

After the backlash, Maher offered an apology on his April 18 show:

“So, on that score, you know what, my Catholic friends, I will never make the “pope is a Nazi” joke again. Because, you’re technically right, OK, and also because it distracts from the main point. And the main point I was making was that if the pope, instead of a religious figure, was the CEO of a chain of nationwide day care centers who had thousands of employees who had been caught molesting children and then covering it up, he would have been in jail. ” [Newsday]

I’ve always been a fan of Maher and in watching the clip (click to see it below the fold) I feel that folks might be overreacting

As in response to his original comments and pseudo apology The American Life League, a Roman Catholic group, has set up a Web site asking for Maher to be fired from his HBO show. Regardless of the fact that the Catholic Church has done a horrible job in dealing with with issues of sexual abuse, nobody is forcing anyone to watch Maher. Just as some folks enjoy Bill Maher, others enjoy Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and the entire team at Fox News.

If you don’t agree with Maher - perhaps you should work to show how the Catholic Church is awesome - that seems like a more effective response to me. But I digress, watch the clip below and to read up on the law and stories concerning freedom of speech.